Monday, February 24, 2014

As you may know the Basque guerrilla ETA, which announced its unilateral and definitive abandonment of armed struggle two years ago, has recently gone forward one step further with a disabling of some weapons (for the cameras) and weapon stores, step verified by international personalities and broadcast by international media such as the BBC.

The only response of the Spanish government has been to ask the political tribunal of fascist creation Audiencia Nacional (aka The Inquisition) to require these verifiers to declare, with the implicit threat of prosecuting them.

This is similar to the peace board of Oslo months ago, which was also unilaterally sabotaged by Madrid, who seems the only part not interested in peace.

Some of them, South African Ronnie Kasrils and Finnish Ram Manikkalingam, who were present in the video of the agreement with masked ETA representatives, as well as Irish Chris Maccabe, have been already forced to declare before the political court. Dutch Fleur Ravensbergen and Ecuatorian Aracelly Santana have also been demanded to declare but have not done it yet.

They explained that, since the unilateral permanent ceasefire by ETA, the armed organization has kept strictly to its word.

We are experienced professionals and we do believe that it is a true opportunity for peace, they emphasized.

They did not explain exactly what kind of questions did the judge ask them but it was expected that they would be asked to provide the identities and localization of the members of ETA who signed the deal with them. It is unknown if they did say anything.

However the verifiers are expected to meet in Aiete (Southern Basque Country, under Spanish occupation) this very week and then we will see the real extent of Spanish Imperialist madness. The presence of three highest profile personalities, Jonathan Powell, Bertie Arhen and Jerry Adams, is confirmed for this meeting, in which they will offer a declaration of support to the disarmament deal.

The initial denounce was instigated by COVITE, one of several pseudo-associations of "victims of terrorism", typically linked to the Spanish Far Right (PP, UPyD and such). The police union SUP is also demanding that the verifiers are prosecuted for "collaboration with terrorism". In any case the request comes from the State Attorney and is therefore directly induced by the Spanish Government (PP).

Madrid got the support of the quite authoritarian French Interior Minister, Manuel Valls, who declared that "this is not any peace process but just fight against terrorism".

Sunday, February 23, 2014

While in the city of Valencia the Nazis could demonstrate with full impunity in support of their criminal comrades of Greece and Ukraine, in Salamanca the antifascists faced them. Three police agents, defending the fascists, were injured.

Zero tolerance against fascism!

Source: Sare Antifaxista[es] (link 1, link 2 - includes video but not of the clashes).

In Honduras they killed Justiniano Velásquez, brother of the mayor of San Francisco de Opalaca (a Lenca community), who locally leads the struggle for democracy and Native rights and self-rule. Comrade Justiniano was apparently kidnapped and then killed by some sort of death squad.

In Venezuela the fascists killed two more people by means of deadly cables hang at the height of the neck, which caught two moped riders with deadly results: Santiago Enrique Pedroza and Delia Elena Lobo Arias in separate incidents. These two innocent victims add to the body count of the fascist uprising in Venezuela, where they have already killed at least other two people: one of their own, a former Miss, who was shot by "friendly fire" according to her friends, and also a worker who marched in a pro-government demo. More people, including workers and police agents, have also been injured.

Friday, February 21, 2014

Four activists of the NO-TAV movement (against the high speed rail in the Alps) have been charged with "terrorism" for allegedly sabotaging a compressor in the works.

There were no personal damages no risks whatsoever nor there is any armed organization behind the sabotage for all we know. However the suspects (so far the evidence is weak if any) are not being prosecuted by regular law but instead have been charged under the anti-terrorist law, whose draconian measures are obviously meant for much more extreme circumstances.

This means that they are in prison without rights and that the penalty they face if found guilty is very high.

This kind of over-extension of the anti-terrorist laws is becoming more and more common. Recently we learned that in the most fascist state on Earth, Saudi Arabia, now even murmuring against the King or the institutions will be considered "terrorism".

But in Europe also this tendency is becoming more common, not necessarily under "terrorism" laws but in any case political activism is being generally criminalized to an extent hardly ever known before. In Spain the new fascist laws imposed by the government mean that the police can arbitrarily fine all kind of activism, such as using mobile phones to call for demos or protesting before the home of a public representative, with figures that are hardly payable for most working class citizens. Being administrative sanctions you cannot even exchange them for time in prison and instead they will be taken from your personal bank accounts without effective possibility of appeal (as resorting to tribunals now has to be paid in advance).

In Italy it seems obvious now, they are adopting the Saudi way of repression: applying "anti-terrorist" measures to all kind of political activism.

Beware because this is meant to spread through the continent state by state, law by law, trial by trial, to every corner, dramatically reducing to near nothingness the political freedoms that some used to take for granted.

Even more worrisome than the advance of openly fascist political parties is this backdoor fascism, implemented by the so-called "democrats", i.e. bourgeois parties.

Thursday, February 20, 2014

As part of the usual violent operations to force the masses to accept the arbitrary rules of the bourgeoisie about property, money and exploitation, the Western Basque Police Force (Ertzaintza) has evicted this morning at 6:30 a housing squat in Erribera 13, Old Quarter of Bilbao.

The inhabitants tried to oppose peaceful resistance on the roof of the building but were violently forced out and identified.

(Update: a woman has been arrested for no apparent reason and accused of "severe disobedience").

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Political prisoner Arkaitz Bellon dies in jail

Arkaitz Bellon, born in Elorrio 36 years
ago, died in strange circumstances in the Spanish prison of Puerto I
(Cadiz). According to the official account, he was found dead in the
afternoon in his isolation cell, for no apparent reason and without
signs of violence. However the family was denied a request to have a
trustworthy physician present in the autopsy and Arkaitz had no medical
history of relevance, being also few months away from being released,
what made the case extremely suspicious.

Nevertheless a second autopsy once the body arrived to the family
appears to have confirmed the official version of unspecified natural
causes.

Arkaitz had been sentenced to 13 years for street guerrilla
activities which caused no victims nor injuries. It is notable that,
wouldn’t he have been Basque, and therefore arbitrarily classified as
“terrorist” and “ETA member”, he would not have even gone to prison at
all, getting a nominal penalty only. Truly violent crimes such as rape
and murder usually get in Spain lower penalties than what Arkaitz got
for taking part in attacks against inanimated properties.

Protests have taken place in his hometown of Elorrio, as well as in
many other Basque towns. At least three young people were arrested in
Algorta for placing posters in solidarity with Bellon.

Arkaitz is the third Basque political prisoner who dies in prison in
less than a year. A list with photos of all prisoners died in jail since
1985 is available at BDG!

Three Basque youths arrested after months into hiding

Goizane Pinedo and Unai Ruiz, persecuted by the Spanish Inquisition
for their political activity, were arrested on January 18th after three
months in hiding. They chained themselves to a blacony in
Vitoria-Gasteiz while a support demonstration was held in the street.

Their nonviolent give-away was responded by a massive deployment of
police forces in riot gear and masks. Other than that there were no
incidents in the arrest.

On January 26th, another victim of political persecution, Idoya
Iragorri, provoked her public arrest in her hometown of Sestao within
the activities of the Disobedience Day, which was massively participated
by police forces, both local and Spanish, in plain clothes or combat
uniform.

The police presence was already very intense in Sestao even before
the Disobedience Day but on this journey it became just massive. The
activities had to be moved because of the rainy weather but the the
information about Iragorri’s ideological persecution and disobedience to
imperialist mock justice were amply publictited in the worker town of
Greater Bilbao in spite of the weather and the overwhelming police
presence.

Eventually Idoia chained herself to the gates of the Town Hall, being braced by a multitude of citizens, including her mother.

Police then charged with brutality against the human wall, causing
the outrage and protest of many witnesses, at least one of whom was
badly beaten and then arrested (being charged as usual with the farcical
accusation of “aggression”).

Idoya Iragorri was also arrested and is expected to go to prison for no other reason than upholding her ideas.

Basque youths denounce the political nature of their trial

36 members of the Basque Nationalist Youth movement Segi offered a
press conference announcing that they will denounce the political nature
of their trial by the Spanish political tribunal Audiencia Nacional
(aka the Inquisition) in their final allegations on January 31st.
They have agreed on a single text, which has also gained the support of
some personalities, such as the President of the Western Basque branch
of the (Spanish nationalist) Socialist Party, Jesus Egiguren, the
attorney and former MEP Txema Montero, writer Toti Martí­nez de Lezea,
the bertsolariak Xabier and Miren Amuriza, rower Jose Luis Korta and climber Alex Txikon.

They also want to promote for this and other instances of
inquistorial repression the so-called “orange ambient”, in reference for
the color chosen for the human walls campaign against political repression.

They warned that in the next months more than 200 Basque citizens
will be tried by the Spanish special courts on mere political grounds.
Most likely all them will go to jail.

Source: Berria[eu]. The full allegation can be watched at Lekhia (in Basque only).

Basque Nationalist Left sketches “unilateral” Basque Way to Independence

The “Basque Way” is unavoidably unilateral because the imperialist
states, Spain and France, have repeatedly shown no signs of being
willing to dialogue, as they do not want any sort of democratic solution. This forced unilateraly will unavoidably clash at some point with the Spanish and French legal frames, they reckon.

They propose that, together with the extant social majority, it is
necessary the formation of a “solid political alliance”, in likely
reference to the ambiguous position of the right-wing Basque Nationalist
Party.

They described the pillars of this strategy, to be defended, as
follows: social rights, language and culture, education system, national
symbols and territoriality (i.e. opposition to the division of the
Basque Country, as happens now).

Ongoing trial for the police-inflicted death of Iñigo Cabacas

Iñigo Cabacas, a supporter of Athletic
Bilbao football team, was killed two years ago by a rubber bullet shot
by Western Basque Autonomous Police agents in the course of a clearly
improcedent and absurdly risky charge against masses of people
peacefully celebrating the success of their team. The public outrage at
this gratuitous and murderous police violence is very high. These weeks
we are witnessing the trial for the killing, which is rather convoluted
because of the extreme overprotection that police agents enjoy under the
Spanish exceptional laws and dubious judicial system.

While the commander of the police
operation, codenamed Ugarteko, who clearly ordered the attack in spite
of the agents on the ground insisting on everything being calm, has
finally been unveiled as Jorge Aldekoa, he remains still not indicted,
while several agents are instead. In order to do this, the Western
Basque Autonomous Government keeps insistent secrecy and pretends that
Aldekoa was only one more in the operative, and even that he was just
watching the match at San Mames stadium, when he was actually the top
boss of the security operative that day in Bilbao.

Spanish Unionist parties, together with
the conservative regionalist EAJ-PNV have blocked a comission to
investigate the case in the Gasteiz Parliament, as well as a request for
Aldekoa declaring in it.

Navarre: corrupt government may collapse

Basque worker union LAB
demanded the resignation of the government of Yolanda Barcina (UPN,
right wing Spanish unionist) after yet another corruption scandal hit
it, in this case arbitrary tax favors to companies with ties with the
government.

The mutual support of
both major unionist parties have kept Navarre under their control for
decades but all opinion polls confirm that such a period is over and
that, after the massive corruption scandals that afflict the Old Kingdom
under their rule, alternative forces leaning to the left and pro-Basque
positions are set to win as soon as elections are held. However the
regional elections are not scheduled until 2015.

President Barcina
declared her intention of calling snap elections, however a call from
Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy, dissuaded her from making such a risky move.
There is widespread concern in Madrid about the likely radical change
that Navarre will endure as soon as new elections are held. However the
center-left unionist party PSN-PSOE, which has so far supported Barcina
with their passivity, has already announced a non-confidence vote, so it
is still possible that early elections will be held anyhow in May.

Sleeping in cash machine rooms in demand of a hospice

Elect officers and grassroots activists
of EH Bildu slept in cash machine rooms, as many homeless people have
to, in demand of a district hospice for the homeless in the Left Bank of
the Bilbao Estuary. The action meant to draw political attention when
this issue is going to be debated in the four municipal councils of the
working class district (Santurtzi, Portugalete, Sestao and Barakaldo).

The law demands that every municipality
with more than 20,000 inhabitants must have such a facilities so nobody
is obligued to sleep in the streets. However it is systematically
ignored. In the Left Bank only Barakaldo offers such a basic
humanitarian service exclusively for the winter months.

The activists acknowledged to be well
aware that the problem is much deeper than the lack of a hospice, being
one of social exclusion and inequality generated by the Capitalist
system, but for the time being this basic paliative is an urgent need.

When the issue was finally to be
discussed in the monthly plenaries of the various towns, the officialist
parties (unionists plus EAJ-PNV) blocked it systematically with all
kind of tricks.

Only in Barakaldo, six homeless people have died while sleeping in the streets this winter.

Compulsory social services for welfare recipients

The Western Basque Government (EAJ-PNV)
has announced that they intend to establish a compulsory social service
for those people who are perceiving the Income Guarantee Rent (most
basic welfare) because of unemployment and dire need.

The putschist government of Lopez
initiated this reactionary reform of welfare services in the Western
Basque Country by transferring them to the Basque unemployment agency
Lanbide, which has been hardly able to cope because of understaffing and
more than dubious practices, which have left thousands unable to access
the public payment of about €600. The current conservative EAJ
government is continuing with the same plan of dismantling the welfare
system and making it more and more Thatcherite in spite of growing
unemployment and all kind of desperate situations caused by the systemic
crisis of Capitalism.

Their last project is to force all
recipients into social compulsory services of some sort. This has been
denounced by all kind of social movements, as well as labor unions. A
major concern is that these forced workers will take much needed jobs,
being forced to work for almost nothing like slaves.

Violent storms shatter the Basque coast

A most violent series of storms, unheard
of except for the oldest ones, caused much havoc in several coastal
towns of the Basque Country. Most affected was Donostia (San Sebastian),
whose Old Quarter was flooded by the storm surge and whose harbor,
established as port for Navarre in 1181, saw the loss of several ships.

Baiona, Zumaia, Bermeo and other towns
were also affected. In Bermeo the wall protecting the fishermen’s
lounges was demolished by the storm, and these were damaged twice by the
waves.

A cargo ship was wrecked at Angelu
(Anglet), being broken in two as the waves threw it against the coast.
Luckily all sailors could be rescued alive.

A Senegalese sailor, who was swallowed by a sudden wave at the dock of Ondarroa is so far the only mortal victim.

Controversy on the Iruñea-Veleia findings continues

The results of a technical test on the
controversial findings ordered by tribunals were leaked to right-wing
newspaper El Correo. These found widespread evidence of modern alloys in
the inscriptions. However the matter is much more complicated than a
shallow read allows.

Detail of one piece before and after the DFA mystery manipulation

Prior to this leak, supporters of the
authenticity of the findings, which include texts in ancient Basque as
well as in Vulgar Latin, etc. had reported that the pieces, under
custody of the provincial government of Araba (DFA, part in the
dispute), had been severely affected by some sortof aggressive cleaning.

After the leaks, they held a press
conference in which they reported contradictions between the earlier
Madariaga report, which found no such evidence of modern materials, and
the new one (still formally unpublished). They attributed these
differences to mishandling of the pieces by the provincial authorities,
active supporters of the falsification hypothesis.

Later it was known that the DFA had
secretly made some very aggressive tests on many of the pieces, whose
results are not publicly known.

While the supporters of the falsification
hypothesis have full control of the evidence (the extraordinary
findings), the accused archaeologists Eliseo Gil and Idoia Filloy have
never been allowed even to look at them. On all these grounds they
demand acquittal because of indefension.

Since the controversy began five years
ago, many new studies have been published in support of the authenticity
of the findings and not a single one in support of the falsification
hypothesis.

Sunday, February 9, 2014

In the last few days I've been reading news of very large and furious protests in Bosnia-Herzegovina, mostly in the major cities (all them of Bosniak or "Muslim" majority) of Sarajevo, Tuzla, Zenica and Bihac. The riots have reached their apogee as the very Presidential Palace has been severely burned.

The uprising began after four major industries were first privatized and then closed down, in yet another example of destructive Capitalism.

Bosnia suffers of massive unemployment (44% of the workforce) and has been unable to recover from the economic decadence since the ethnic war, situation aggravated now by the systemic crisis of global Capitalism.

Hundreds are reported injured and it is unclear where the conflict may head to. What is clear is that Europe in general is more and more submerged into Capitalist destruction and widespread public anger. It's not just Bosnia.

Monday, February 3, 2014

This is the result of the national convention of the ruling party in Spain, the ultra-reactionary heir of Fascism Partido Popular. There are other injured citizens, as well as many arrested, but Encarna Arias, 56, is the one in the worst situation, suffering from a brain stroke caused by police beatings.

In the last day of the political act, a demonstration of unemployed people (almost 30% of the workforce is in such situation) marched by a restaurant where some neofascist delegates were eating. One of them insulted the protesters, stirring their verbal reaction. This was the moment when police first attacked, trying to arrest some of the demonstrators, what was actively prevented by the crowd, being then massively attacked by dozens of riots policemen, who beat and arrest them at whim.

It was apparent that some of the demonstrators were being actively identified by the masked police agents, much as it happened in the infamous ideological cleansing time of the Civil War, when hundreds of thousands were identified as "reds" by their fascist neighbors, murdered and buried in some forgotten roadside.

Among the victims of the police brutality were many people with discapacities.

This is just the tip of the iceberg of the clearly growing unrest in the failed state of Spain. In the last weeks alone there have been several riots, some of which have resulted in localized victories of the masses, with police having to run away in fear or controversial projects having to be stopped on concerns of international credibility. Interestingly many of the last conflicts have happened in the traditionally conservative areas of Castile, usually more loyal to the state (but not anymore it seems).

The overall situation is hard to evaluate but I'd say that it's growingly chaotic if we add up the growing protests and riots, the active separatism in Catalonia especially and in general the popular desperation, mostly organized at grassroots level (the so-called "15M Movement"). To all this the regime has responded only with extremist unilateral measures which only benefit the big capitalists and their own extremist ideology (anti-abortion law), as well as with the reinforcement of police and establishment of internal military intervention plans (against Catalonia or against anyone else who dares to challenge the plutocrats), leading more and more to a situation similar to that of Turkey.

The scheduled local and general elections are still more than one year away and, barring surprises, they should lead to a coalition government of all the (very weakened) regime's parties (traditionally acting as opposition of each other but not anymore), as has already happened in Greece, Italy and Germany, where conservatives and "socialists" (liberals) have formed joint governments to protect the interests of the Big Capital.